gray mushroom and dreaming of fall...

today i am dreaming of fall... of walks through the woods... wearing a sweater. i am dreaming of hunting for mushrooms, a challenge to see how many different kinds i can find. i am dreaming of crunchy leaves, and just the smell of autumn in the air. it's definitely my favorite season by far. i know it is still a ways off here in the south... but i can dream. i can also sew some mushrooms! i made this one today with autumn in mind... or maybe the gray winter mornings ahead? oh, i love those too...

etsy feature!

i was so excited this week when someone from etsy contacted me and asked if they could feature my house in this week's "get the look" series. um, hello! of course! it's one of my favorite features on etsy!!

so, i thought i also should have some new things in the shop (why my other work got put on hold), so i have been busy sewing! there are some new goodies in the shop for you to check out...

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

a wonderful day in history. i am taking a break today to watch this wonderful speech and pay tribute to those who dedicate their lives to improving the lives of others... to think about what has been accomplished and how far we still have to go!

sneak peek...

sneak peek of my groom. unfortunately the bride is giving me trouble... how cliche of her:) they will sit on a pretty stand when finished. hopefully by the end of the week. oh, yes and of course my other project is delayed too... i know you are starting to expect that from me. i have so much motivation! i try to work, but i can only fit in bits and pieces here and there. my husband has been working on a big project himself lately so it is 12 hour days with the kids... not allowing much time for bitsy animals. i promise wonderful things as soon as i can! i do miss my stitching time!

new adventure...

i'm really excited to share a new little venture my sister katy (winsome hollow) and i are undertaking. we really enjoying working together, and when she was offered the chance to do a custom wedding order, i offered to help her. she made all the beautiful table arrangements seen below! i helped her with the bride and groom's arrangements. we had so much fun! it is a really imaginative and creative process, and it feels really nice to help make someone's day so special. i love the trend now in wedding's toward using handmade and vintage. i love the smaller more intimate feel of weddings, and the way couple's really try to express who they are. so, katy and i have the idea to help people who are interested in these types of weddings. we have a new store, prairie seed, where you can order special handmade arrangements like these (we will also be making ready made pieces). we have beautiful vintage pieces that can be used in the arrangements or as part of a collection of vintage table settings, and gifts to be given by or for a new couple.

(there's my little cutie as our first model!)

this week i am also working on my first cake topper! i hope to have a giraffe couple finished by monday to be able to share with you. this space will still be for little love blue only, but wanted to share this new shop with you. i hope you will visit and tell us what you think! we will be setting up a blog related to the work in that shop, but i will share any animals i make here as well, if you are interested.

monday i will also share my new shop series for little love blue!! i think it will be really fun... now i am off to work.

xo

etsy favorites (rustic beauty)...

loving this cabin in the catskills, that i saw on design*sponge yesterday. i love the rustic simplicity and beauty of it. love the setting. love that it made by hand, with the help of friends and family. that the couple learned the skills they needed to make it themselves. i would love to have all of this some day.

in the meantime here are some etsy lovelies that are inspired by this...

 

antique oil landscape painting, from little byrd vintage

organic cotton ribbon knickers, by conscious clothing

vintage folding camp stool, from gaelianna

white cotton petticoat, from vintage marquise

lila and fern on a holiday, from art by elizabeth bauman

vintage wood bark bowl, from ethanollie

have a lovely day! i'm off to the library and to take my littlest one to her first ballet class... excitement all around:)

i am busy working and hope to share some news... actually two new projects in the next few days!

favorite artists...

loving these beautiful sewn paper sculptures by artist anna-wili highfield. from her bio:

"Anna-Wili Highfield is a Sydney based artist currently making sculptures of animals from torn paper and from copper pipe. The paper sculptures are created from archival cotton paper, that is painted, then torn and sewn together, to create the figure of an animal. The copper pipe is bent and manipulated to create sculptural forms reminiscent of line drawings."

i have finished up my office and i am really ready to get back to work. i have set up a new challenge for myself... which i will start to share with you next week. i think it will be a great way to motivate me to do some new work, and will hopefully be interesting to you also!

more images here.  found via little byrd.

** i added this little video from the show man shops globe... 

etsy favorites... (going to the fair)

1) love is in the air, by irenesuchocki

2) reversible cotton bonnet, by anabelfuzz

3) americauna chick, by aliciaunderhill 

4) pink lemonade fine art print, by averystroy

5) toffee covered apples, by skippingstones

6) 1939 world's fair folding cane seat, from cathodeblue

i'm dreaming of the state fair these days. one of my favorite things to do in new york, was to drive up north and go to the fair with with our family. the rides, the food, and especially the animals... pure love. i'm a sucker for the fair... even though it was always a hundred degrees outside. we will have to find the local fair here... from what i can tell there are atleast two... one in october and one in the spring. the fair times two! and it it probably won't be a hundred degrees by then. i can't wait!

untill then we are enjoying the last days of summer. all the kids have already gone back to school here... though i can't really tell the difference because they were all in summer activities anyway before that. we are reading beezus and ramona (again, for sid this time). it is kind of sad to me that it seems like such a foreign world to my children... traveling to the library and the park all by yourself! they are in awe. the freedom from constant adult supervision seems such a new concept to them. this was so much the world of my childhood though. the books were so familiar when i read them as a child myself. i thought this world would exist a little more down here in georgia, but honestly i think parents are more fearful here than in nyc! i actually had a woman across the street lecture me because my four year old was crossing the street by herself... while i was in the yard working! i miss streets full of kids playing freely... i know they exist some places still (i have seen them). maybe i just need to find one for ourselves. anyway, has anyone seen the new movie? is it worth a visit? i hold these books so dear i am always skeptical?

we are seeing subtle changes in our own yard... the shifting from summer to fall. our garden is being turned over to new "crops" (while i am trying desperately to keep the eggplants still growing from hungry squirrels.. any tips? i put a bunch of my son's colorful plastic snakes all around it!). also, our yard has become a showcase for a whole assortment of new birds! i am enjoying watching them at the window feeders immensely... and have my little bird book out to identify them.

someone else is enjoying watching the birds too (can you tell she is hiding?)... 

bird watching is allowed only with the windows closed after they managed to catch a bird inside the house! oh, it was so traumatic... i came running in to a bird flapping and calling frantically all over my bedroom and the cat sitting in shock in the corner with a mouthful of feathers!! we managed to get the bird inside a pet carrier and amazingly she was fine and was able to eventually fly away. i never thought this would be a problem with indoor cats!

(oh man, after looking at this again i am seeing how dirty my windows are!)

home....

i am happy to be at home. maybe too happy, because in this heat is getting hard to drag ourselves outside. i have been really busy. really, really busy. painting and painting, moving furniture, sewing rearranging whole rooms... whew! i wish i could have better photos to share, but unfortunately my short camera lens is broken! oh, horror! i only have the long lens, which makes house photos (as well as work photos) a little more difficult. i thought i'd share a few shots though...

my favorite spot in the living room... my little collection of plants that continues to grow. i have this book shelf from ikea to hold books (of course), plants and also provide extra seating with a sheepskin for comfort. check out the beautiful succulent that is from katy's shop! also the little bird succulent i got for only $7 from my favorite plant seller at the farmer's market...

another shot of my living room. i'm still trying to decide what to hang over the couch. i think a shelf for art work and a lamp. you can see my new pottery barn rug that i bought with the gift certificate i won from decor8!! i love, love, love it! also you can see a few pillows i made and the cover for my ikea table. here some more from ikea that i made my own...

a very simple and inexpensive chair made pretty. it sits next to the fire place, and this little table witha  vintage globe and little wooden doll...

i also moved my office this week..... i know, finally! it isn't quite finished so i don't have any photos yet but it is so much better so far. i turned my old office in to a "hang out room". this is what my four year old dubbed it, and that is all she wants to do now....

the playroom got another update, with new art corner....

the bathroom got a new coat of paint (also the hall but i couldn't capture that one well)...

and of course, my mantel is an ever changing work in progress...

check out flickr for some other photos and more info.

a big thanks to be@home for a lovely blog award this week!!

Home & Garden Blog

looking back, part two...

after traveling up to d.c. we ventured farther north to nyc... our first trip back "home' since the move. it was definitely bittersweet, as you would expect. sidney wanted to visit our old house, but then had to ask which one it was! the only house she had ever lived in before! so strange. i wonder often what memories they will carry with them? we did some of our favorite ny things, even though we really only had a few days to do them in. we decided to stay in manhattan rather than brooklyn, so it would feel more like a vacation and maybe less sad. we got an amazing last minute deal on a beautiful hotel right near central park! we ate bagels in the park one morning, listening to a live jazz band. it was heavenly (oh, how we missed you ny bagels). we walked through the zoo, climbed rocks, and went on the stone slide, one of our most favorite outings when we lived there.

we also had a way over priced but amazing breakfast at the hotel, that the kids totally didn't appreciate... ahh, new york. i ventured to take the kids to the MOMA by myself... on a free day. hello?! what was i thinking? it was insane, the guards were snarky about the stroller, everyone was there on a date, there was a live performance piece where someone was just sitting silently staring at a chair that people took turns sitting in and staring back, my kids were INSANE. it was totally like going back to normal for me! we saw some some beautiful art, that looks terrible with no flash...

and the guards gave us more attitude about sidney "sketching" with pen, which i didn't realize was off limits but they were kind enough only to give us the eye and not make her stop...

it was a lot of fun! we ventured in to brooklyn to visit our old neighborhood, but mostly to see friends. that was the most amazing part. we invited whoever could come to the park to hang out, and when everyone showed up it was like no time had passed. these photos of the kids make me cry because they have known these friends since they were all babies. it was amazing!

thanks patti, for taking some of these, i treasure them. thanks to sonia and andy for letting us come up to visit you at your new house later, for taking us to ice cream and giving me some beautiful wool! out of all the wonderful things about ny, this was really the only thing we miss. so many of these dear friends have since moved on too, so nothing ever really stays the same i suppose. we do love you all!

next up, a little country living. to see my favorite nearly sister-in-law... and jay too;) oh, we miss you guys, and living so close. we spent the week just being, and that was so lovely. playing in the woods and tree fort, hiking and creek dipping (except for black flies... poor sid!), visiting a farm for fresh raw milk, chickies!! what more could we ask for? they are living the life i (not so) secretly want...

we really hated to go, and even the chicken didn't want to say goodbye. just as we were getting in the car to leave we found her here. she apparently had other ideas... maybe a trip of her own? i was ready to take her, but i think she would miss her life in the woods. i wouldn't blame her!

thanks for being so patient and sitting through all my vacation slides! i have some more from the beach. i will spare you though... until later at least.